The present invention relates to a device in a plastics processing machine for cleaning a molding tool thereof, particularly the male and female molds of the molding tool or die of a hydraulic press which presses molded components from fiber reinforced plastics, wherein the device includes at least one cleaning tool which can be moved toward and away from a respective one of the molds.
Die cleaning devices in presses are known in various embodiments. Usually, the dies are cleaned by means of rotating rolls or pivotal brushes. It is also known to clean dies by, for example, moving the brush in guides which are adapted to the outlines of the die.
When plastic components are produced in molding tools which have what is referred to as immersion edges, remainders of burrs remain particularly in the region of the immersion edges. If these burr remainders are not removed, these now hardened pieces of material may be pressed into the next pressed component and may sometimes cause considerable weakening of the resulting press-molded component. Thus, particularly in the case of manual charging of the molding tools, the immersion edges are cleaned manually after each process phase by means of customary cleaning tools, such as compressed air pistols, brushes and scrapers. Such work takes up a considerable amount of time.
It has also been proposed to clean the immersion edges by means of numerically controlled coordinate devices equipped with a brush and a blow nozzle and by traversing a fixed, predetermined geometry. However, this mode of operation requires accurate positioning of the movable press component(s) and molding tools so that they will not be damaged during the cleaning. In this case, cleaning can begin only after the movable molding tool component has come to a standstill in the position of the open stroke. This requires considerably more time and correspondingly delays the next process phase.